Round 9 Feature Match: Jordan Kehler VS Thomas Morran

September 18th, 2011

We’ve seen a ton of different strategies so far this weekend, but Thomas Morran is piloting a Deck we haven’t seen in Feature Match action yet: Destiny Hero Diva! A new incarnation of the Diamond Dude Turbo strategy, this Deck aims to use Destiny HERO – Diamond Dude and Destiny HERO – Malicious in combination with Deep Sea Diva, unleashing big Synchro Monsters and Elemental HERO Absolute Zero. Morran’s opponent is Jordan Kehler, one of several Tech Genus Agents Duelists still left in the tournament. Kehler’s Deck is super-fast, and really good at managing the Graveyard. It plays Kristya really easily, and that could be a huge factor against Morran’s Special Summons.Morran started off Day 2 with a hand of MonsterReborn; LostBlueBreaker; Reinforcementof the Army; HeavyStorm; DeepSeaDiva; and FutureFusion. He activated FutureFusion, sending Destiny HERO – Malicious and TreebornFrog to his Graveyard for Elemental HERO Absolute Zero. Reinforcement of the Army got him Elemental HERO Stratos from his Deck, and he Summoned it to get Destiny HERO – Diamond Dude.

Kehler fired back with T.G. Striker, Special Summoning it with its effect. He then Normal Summoned The Agent of Mystery – Earth, getting The Agent of Creation – Venus from his Deck. Stacking his monsters together, Kehler Xyz Summoned Gachi Gachi Gantetsu in Defense Position, and finished his turn by Setting a single card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone.

Morran drew and activated DestinyDraw, discarding Diamond Dude to draw PotofDuality and SolemnJudgment. He Normal Summoned DeepSeaDiva, Special Summoning another Diva from his Deck. Morran banished Malicious from his Graveyard to Special Summon another from his Deck: Kehler activated BookofMoon to turn Malicious face-down. Morran pressed on, Tuning Diva to Stratos to Synchro Summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. He discarded LostBlueBreaker to bounce Gachi Gachi back to Kehler’s Extra Deck, and then attacked for 2300 Battle Damage with Brionac. Kehler was down to 5700 Life Points, and Morran Set a single card to his back row. He left the second Diva on the field, not trading his Brionac for a StardustDragon.Kehler activated HeavyStorm, and Morran Chained SolemnJudgment to negate it and save his Future Fusion, dropping to 4000 Life Points. Kehler Summoned Venus, paying 500 Life Points to Special Summon MysticalShineBall. He used the effect two more times to summon two more Shine Balls, then stacked two of them for another Gachi Gachi: this one in Attack Position. He banished Venus from his field to Special Summon MasterHyperion, then banished Earth from his Graveyard to destroy Future Fusion with Hyperion’s effect. Hyperion attacked over Brionac to destroy it, and Gachi Gachi attacked to destroy Malicious. Kehler ended his turn by Setting a single Spell or Trap.

Morran drew UpstartGoblin and Special Summoned TreebornFrog. He destroyed Kehler’s Set Pot of Duality with HeavyStorm, and Special Summoned his Malicious with MonsterReborn, Tuning it to TreebornFrog and Diva for Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier! He banished Hyperion from the field; T.G. Striker from the Graveyard; and another Hyperion from Kehler’s hand! Kehler had no cards left in hand, and nothing but Gachi Gachi and a single Shine Ball left on the field. Morran drew DestinyDraw with UpstartGoblin, then attacked Gachi Gachi: Kehler kept it on the field by detaching a Shine Ball. Morran Set DestinyDraw.

Kehler turned Gachi Gachi to Defense Position.

Morran drew Diamond Dude, and discarded it for Destiny Draw, getting Tragoedia and PlaguespreaderZombie. Pot of Duality got him Tragoedia, Diva, and Upstart, and he added Tragoedia to his hand. Trishula attacked Gachi Gachi again, and it lost its last Xyz Material.

Kehler drew to three cards in hand with a bare field: Morran had three cards in hand, plus Zero and Trishula on the field. Kehler Normal Summoned The Agent of Miracles – Jupiter, and banished it to Special Summon Hyperion! He banished a Shine Ball from his Graveyard to destroy Trishula, and Set a card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone.

Morran drew MindControl, and Special Summoned TreebornFrog. He attacked Hyperion with Zero, destroying it, and ended.

Kehler activated DarkHole.

Morran drew another UpstartGoblin and passed.

Kehler drew and Summoned The Agent of Mystery – Earth, getting another Venus from his Deck.

Morran drew DeepSeaDiva, and activated Upstart to draw PhoenixWingWindBlast. He Set it and ended, losing the Wind Blast to MysticalSpaceTyphoon in the End Phase.

Kehler revealed Herald of Orange Light; EffectVeiler; and Tragoedia with Pot of Duality next turn, choosing to add Tragoedia to his hand. He shifted Earth to Defense Position.

Morran drew Gorz the Emissary of Darkness and passed.

Kehler Set a monster.

Morran drew MiracleFusion, and activated MindControl to take Kehler’s Set T.G. Striker. “To be honest, that does not help me,” remarked Morran. He activated MiracleFusion, banishing Zero and Stratos from his Graveyard. He Special Summoned another Zero, and attacked to destroy Earth.

Kehler Special Summoned ArchlordKristya, with 4 Fairies in the Graveyard! He returned Hyperion to his hand, then attacked TreebornFrog with Kristya.

Morran drew MysticalSpaceTyphoon. The Duel stood at 4100 Life Points to 3200, with Kehler still in the lead. Morran Summoned DeepSeaDiva, boosting Zero to 3000 ATK, and attacked over Kristya with Zero! He Set the Typhoon.

Kehler drew Kristya again, and Normal Summoned Venus. He Flip Summoned Striker, and Tuned his monsters for Ally of Justice Catastor. Catastor attacked to destroy Zero, and Zero destroyed it in turn. In Main Phase 2, Kehler Special Summoned Kristya again to get back Venus.

Morran drew another MiracleFusion, but couldn’t activate it with Kristya on the table. He Set another monster, and turned Diva to Defense Position.

Kehler Summoned Venus next turn, and attacked over Diva and Morran’s Set Plaguespreader Zombie.

Morran drew TorrentialTribute and Set it. Kehler attacked with Venus and Kristya to win the Duel next turn.

Two big plays with ArchlordKristya lead to victory for Jordan Kehler, as a strong start for Thomas Morran finds no purchase in the late game. Kehler might be just three Duels away from a seat in the Top 32!

Morran started Duel 2 with a hand of 2 SolemnWarning; Phoenix Wing Wind Blast; BottomlessTrapHole; MiracleFusion; and DoomcaliberKnight. He Summoned Doomcaliber and Set Bottomless.

Kehler Set a monster.

Morran drew and activated Pot of Duality, revealing SolemnJudgment; PlaguespreaderZombie; and Destiny HERO – Diamond Dude from the top of his Deck. He added SolemnJudgment to his hand and shuffled the rest back to his Deck. Morran attacked with DoomcaliberKnight, but Kehler activated D.D. Crow’s effect, forcing Doomcaliber to Tribute itself. Morran Set a card to his back row.

Kehler Flip Summoned Sangan for a direct attack, then revealed Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning; The Agent of Mystery – Earth; and The Agent of Miracles – Jupiter from the top of his Deck. He took Earth, and Summoned it to get The Agent of Creation – Venus from his Deck.

Morran drew Diamond Dude and Summoned it, activating its effect to send MysticalSpaceTyphoon to the bottom of his Deck. Diamond Dude attacked to destroy Earth, and Morran Set 2 more cards to his back row.

Kehler Normal Summoned Venus and paid 500 Life Points to activate its effect: Morran Chained BottomlessTrapHole to banish Venus, and Kehler Special Summoned his one MysticalShineBall.

Morran drew Allure of Darkness and attacked Shine Ball with Diamond Dude. He used Diamond Dude’s effect in Main Phase 2, missing again: he sent Light-Imprisoning Mirror to the bottom of his Deck. A Set Spell or Trap finished out the turn.

Morran drew MiracleFusion. He activated Diamond Dude’s effect again, this time sending DestinyDraw to the Graveyard! Next turn he’d get to draw 2 cards for free.

Kehler passed.

Morran drew Destiny HERO – Malicious, then entered his Main Phase to draw DarkArmedDragon and BottomlessTrapHole with DestinyDraw’s effect. AllureofDarkness let him draw Deep Sea Diva and another DestinyDraw, and he banished DarkArmedDragon from his hand to complete Allure’s effect. Morran discarded Malicious with DestinyDraw next, drawing HeavyStorm and Reinforcement of the Army. He Normal Summoned DeepSeaDiva; activated her effect; and Kehler negated it with Herald of Orange Light, discarding Kristya to destroy Diva. Morran revealed Gorz the Emissary of Darkness with Diamond Dude’s effect; placed it on the bottom of his Deck; and then activated Reinforcement to get Elemental HERO Stratos. He Set a fourth Spell or Trap to wind things down.With 4 Fairies in his Graveyard, Kehler tried to Special Summoned Archlord Kristya: Morran let it go, and when Kehler targeted The Agent of Mystery – Earth to return it to his hand, Morran banished Kristya with Bottomless. Kehler Summoned Earth to get another Venus from his Deck, and Morran spun Sangan back tot he top of Kehler’s Deck with Wind Blast. Kehler took control of Diamond Dude with PuppetPlant, then Tuned Diamond Dude to Earth to Synchro Summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier! He Set a single card to his back row.

Morran drew another MiracleFusion, and took Brionac with MindControl! He discarded HeavyStorm to bounce Kehler’s one back row card, then activated MiracleFusion with Stratos and Brionac to Summon Elemental HERO Absolute Zero! It attacked for a direct shot, and Kehler Special Summoned Tragoedia, dropping to 4600 Life Points. Morran had 2600 Life Points. Kehler discarded MasterHyperion to take control of Zero with Tragoedia’s effect, then attacked to finish the Match!

Jordan Kehler moves on to the final Round of Swiss Competition with a 7-2 record, now one Match away from a shot at the Top 32!